What is Collective Narrative Infrastructure and Why Does it Matter

Summary

Emi Aguilar and Trevor Smith argue that philanthropy defines infrastructure too narrowly, funding organisations when it’s movements that change things. What’s missing is narrative and solidarity infrastructure: the “connective tissue” between groups, and investment in “the rituals, healing, and alignment work that form the emotional and cultural backbone of collective action” – Raymond Williams’s “structure of feeling”.

Rationale

Trevor Smith was one of our interviewees, and ‘solidarity infrastructure’ became part of how we talk about what this work needs: relationships held over time, not only stories.